"We Need Something Different": Understanding Westboro Baptist Church’s Ministry of Rebuke through Empathic Research Methods
This article examines responses to the controversial picketing and media-savvy provocations of the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC). Since WBC’s conduct is widely perceived as cruel, people often respond with anger and animosity, which reinforce WBC’s self-representation as a persecuted church. Convers...
| Published in: | Journal of religious ethics |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Wiley-Blackwell
[2020]
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| In: |
Journal of religious ethics
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| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Westboro Baptist Church
/ Provocation
/ Interview
/ Listening
/ Empathy
/ Moral judgment
/ Rejection of
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| RelBib Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy AG Religious life; material religion CA Christianity KBQ North America KDG Free church NCC Social ethics |
| Further subjects: | B
Westboro Baptist Church
B Listening B comparative religious ethics B Empathy |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | This article examines responses to the controversial picketing and media-savvy provocations of the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC). Since WBC’s conduct is widely perceived as cruel, people often respond with anger and animosity, which reinforce WBC’s self-representation as a persecuted church. Conversely, I have engaged Westboro Baptists in interviews that function as "bridging conversations." This methodology centers on critical-empathic listening, comparative religious ethics, and a disciplined restraint from expressing moral judgment. I argue that this response is supported by the data and understandings obtained, metapragmatic commentary, my rapport with churchgoers, and evidence of their empathy. In conclusion, I gauge the methodology’s risks and consider its expansion, for example, with undergraduates who have joined our conversations. In an era of polarized discourse, nonjudgmental listening is a counter-intuitive response that troubles entrenched binaries, including the public fashioning of WBC as a dehumanized enemy. |
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| ISSN: | 1467-9795 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of religious ethics
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1111/jore.12308 |